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Marion County Team Plans to Use Monday’s Girls State Tournament as Learning, Motivational Experience

The Iowa High School Girls State Basketball Tournament opens this morning in Des Moines, and one of our local teams will be in attendance – not to play, but to try and learn what it takes to be one of the final eight teams standing in all of Class 1A. Twin Cedars assembled a strong season in their 2011-12 campaign, but ran into the Lynnville-Sully buzzsaw in the second round of the Regional Tournament.

Sabers’ head coach Justin Nolte hopes attending today’s State Tournament Quarterfinals can serve as motivation for his young team and also give them a chance to watch the team that ended their season. Lynnville-Sully comes into the Class 1A State Tournament with a 23-2 overall record – having only lost to top-ranked and undefeated North Mahaska – and will face West Sioux at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon. Nolte’s Twin Cedars girls squad finished the year with an admirable 17-6 overall record – just one shy of the school season wins record – and took second place in the Bluegrass Conference.